Linking services like Skype, Viber, and WhatsApp are becoming increasingly popular and the total number of communication applications is growing. Unfortunately these communications applications lack interoperability. In order for a person to communicate with all of their contacts, they need to have multiple communications applications, each with their own list of contacts. It is time consuming for a user to have to search through multiple lists of contacts in multiple applications to find a particular contact. Further, having multiple communication applications on an electronic device consumes additional memory on the device.
Additionally, in many cases roaming cell service charges abroad are expensive, and there are many places where there is no Internet connection allowing for inexpensive communication through a communications application.